Any Filipino Town (Community) Can Launch A UsuryFree Time Currency

NOTE: I choose to use the word ‘token’ or ‘wampum’ when I write about the usuryfree community currency movement because governments all over the world assume that they have control over forms of money that refer to themselves as ‘currency’ – which is defined: ‘Money in an form when in actual use as a medium of exchange, especially circulating paper money.' In this article I will use the term ‘usuryfree time token’ to refer to the proposed time trading unit.

Further Note: This website offers a good explanation of the conventional unit of money – the usury-based, debt currency commonly referred to as the Filipino Peso: 

A small Greek Town (Volos) Develops a Bartering System Without using the Euro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y9R0v96K48 and the BBC reports it as a ‘good news’ item.

Likewise RT also reports: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dIEqFOG-wE the story as a ‘good news’ item.

After having been in Cebu City, Philippines for two weeks, I have witnessed extreme poverty and abundant wealth. And in the middle, I have had the opportunity to meet many young entrepreneurs from foreign countries who have settled here in recent years to launch successful online businesses.

The foreign owners of these online businesses with whom I have had interactions, display a high degree of integrity and they offer not only fair monthly wages, but also excellent working conditions to their Filipino employees. I hereby encourage these young, successful entrepreneurs to become familiar with the usuryfree time token movement with the intention of considering possible ways that they could co-sponsor the launch of a usuryfree time token here in one of the barangays in Cebu City.  

The young, enthusiastic and highly skilled Filipinos that are being employed by these innovative entrepreneurs who have moved here from other countries are either still enrolled in schools, or they are interns or recent graduates from local schools. They are very appreciative to be able to help their families by bringing home a pay regular pay cheque.

I have had conversations with these young Filipinos – some who are fortunate enough to work in air-conditioned offices and others who have to endure the summer heat while working. When I bring up the topic of economics, and ask them why in 1961, two Filipino Pesos were equivalent in value to one Dollar (American Funds) while in 2012 approximately 45 Filipino Pesos are equivalent to one Dollar (American Funds) – they commonly respond with a statement that it is because the banking power of the western world has caused the devaluation of the Filipino Peso.

There now are options: (a) to continue to be pillaged by the international financiers by resigning to the status quo and engaging in commerce by relying solely on Filipino Pesos – which by definition are another usury-based currency just like the Canadian dollar or the American dollar or the British Pound etc. or (b) in the alternative to take action to by implement local barter/trading systems that will permit participants to negotiate trades with a usuryfree time token in combination with Filipino Pesos.

These usuryfree time tokens are becoming popular because they give value based on the honesty and integrity of the local traders. Additionally, the value of these usuryfree time tokens is backed up by the local productivity of prosumers – people who produce and consume. A functional, usuryfree time token system helps local consumers swap products and services to meet their individual, family and small business needs. 

A key point to understand is that the creation and growth of a flourishing barter system is the starting point to re-build a truly sustainable economy, that will restore  honourable principles of local co-operation and commence the shift to permit barangays to eventually decentralize from the global banking cartel that has a usury grip on the entire Filipino economy –  where there is abundant evidence of poverty, scarcity and lack. The Filipino economy is struggling in a manner similar to all of the other, conventional economies all around the world that are paying usury on debt to the global banking cartel.

Research indicates that It is common for these local traders to use a combination of federal dollars in combination with any usuryfree time token as these barter/trading networks go through the birthing process. For example, a product that retails for 100 Filipino Pesos may have a wholesale cost of 60 or 70 Filipino Pesos. Therefore, since the retailer may have to pay the wholesaler in Filipino Pesos, s/he would probably negotiate the trade and accept 80% in Filipino Pesos and 20% in the local, usuryfree time token. By trading within this ratio, the retailer will be able to cover any costs of doing business with the amount of Filipino Pesos earned.

Readers may ask: Why would any local entrepreneur choose to participate and accept a usuryfree time token as partial payment for any negotiated trade? The answer becomes obvious when a little knowledge is gained about the power and potential of any trading token when the element of interest or usury is removed from the function of money.

Since the re-birth of bartering and trading with these usuryfree community tokens in the early 1980’s – with the launch of the first usuryfree software referred to as the LETS (Local Employment Trading System) software, those who are participating are learning how to use the usuryfree time tokens to acquire some of the basic needs for daily living and/or business expenses and whatever usury-based, debt money they are able to save, they are encouraged to use it to pay off any outstanding loans or mortgages, as it is the interest or usury portion of debt that is the killer machine that keeps debtors financially enslaved to debtors for generation after generation.

After witnessing the technological skills and savvy of the young Filipinos and likewise, the honesty and integrity of the young, foreign entrepreneurs who have established small to medium-sized businesses here in Cebu City, I am convinced that what the Greeks can do, the Filipinos can do.

Why wait for any worsening economic crisis – Do it NOW – just like Paul Glover from Ithaca, New York did in 1991 when he took a leadership role to launch Ithaca Hours and just recently in 2012, Wayne Walton similarly assumed a leadership role to launch Mountain Hours in Summit County, Colorado, USA:  

Back in 2004, The Family Life Foundation – a duly registered charitable organization in Canada, came forth to offer financial aid to help launch Tamworth Hours Project in an economically depressed area of rural, eastern Ontario.

Though, the Tamworth Hours Project has since been temporarily shelved, many lessons were learned that can now be shared with others who are ready and willing to launch a usuryfree time token in their respective local communities. The Family Life Foundation has a mandate to support the launch and development of the usuryfree community currency movement - and hopefully, they would be willing to support such a project here in the Philippines.

I challenge any barangay in the Cebu City or elsewhere in the Philippines to assemble the brightest, youthful minds to research and develop a bartering system that will permit local consumers to negotiate trades using a usuryfree time token in combination with the usury-based, debt currency commonly referred to as the Filipino Peso. I daresay, that the local and internet media will report such an initiative as a ‘good news’ item also. 

This website has compiled list of usuryfree time currencies that were operating earlier in this 21^st Century: There are more usuryfree time currencies being launched now all over the world.

Readers are invited to do a search of ‘usuryfree time currency’ and you’ll learn lots that you didn’t know you didn’t know! As  you learn how simple it is to launch a usuryfree time token, you, with the co-operation of others in your local network can take a leadership role and birth a usuryfree time currency in your local community.

NOTE: To examine samples of other usuryfree community tokens click here.

Feedback and comments welcomed –